whole-handedly

adverb

With one's whole hand or hands; (figuratively) comprehensively.

Meanings

adverb

alternative wholehandedly

  1. uncommonWith one's whole hand or hands; (figuratively) comprehensively.

    Indeed, the record convinces the court that the government whole-handedly controls and blatantly influences EMMES' action with respect to disclosure of the documents.

    1999, Access Reports/freedom of Information
    4 more examples

    I always knew that a cactus was dangerous, so I said to myself, “'Tis these great spikes one must avoid," and threw myself whole-heartedly and whole-handedly into stroking the beautiful green spaces between.

    1913, The Smith College Monthly

    It must, however, be remembered that Dekker and Day had “collaborated: on more than one occasion, and it is open to a generous critic to assume that one of the two writers put his work whole-handedly at the disposal of the other.

    1924, Arthur Henry Bullen, Elizabethans

    […] and when touched are grabbed whole-handedly. A friend who is an expert says there is more skill in this than in fishing with fly, but I fancy that those who use rod and line will not agree.

    1950, Crichton Porteous, Derbyshire

    Naïve, with the grace of a virgin playing at stirring up the flowers of an almond tree, she raised, whole-handedly, the scented froth of her intimate apparel. A wave of painful joy ran through Duvauchelle.

    2004, Edward Bruce Ford, Jean Giono's Hidden Reality, Edwin Mellen Press, →ISBN
Cite this entry
APA

whole-handedly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whole-handedly

MLA

“whole-handedly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whole-handedly. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “whole-handedly,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whole-handedly.

Source: whole-handedly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.